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Flight Sim Navigation Tutorial #1
Using Charts and Maps to go places
by Michael Flaminio
This is the first in a four part series about navigating within general aviation
flight simulators. These instructions are intended to provide only a basic understanding
of flight navigation to help gamers use flight sims.
Playing flight sims can be fun, whether you're shooting down planes, bombing bridges
or just landing and taking off. I had played a couple different flight simulator
games before, but none really grabbed my attention. It wasn't until I got some hands
on training by someone who actually knows how to fly did I get interested in general
aviation games.
For the Mac, there are two general aviation games available. These are X-Plane
from Laminar Research and Fly! from Terminal Reality.
Each game has its own pros and cons, and I like them both. For these tutorials, I'll
be using X-Plane in my examples, but navigation info is the same for any general
aviation game. Aside from where knobs and buttons are located, things should be pretty
much the same for any simulator or plane.
I should also note that by no means do I claim to actually know what I'm doing. I
got some tips from knowledgeable sources and learned from there. These flight sim
resources are intended to be an open resource for others to teach and learn in hopes
of promoting flight simulators on the Mac. Once you learn how to fly from these tutorials,
I can almost guarantee you'll enjoy using general aviation simulators much more.
Equipment
Before we get too far, I recommend you pick up some gear that will immeasurably help
in your travels. These accessories are fairly inexpensive and can make flying quite
a bit easier. Both Fly! and X-Plane includes details from the maps listed below,
but having them in front of you tends to make flying easier.
The first item is a set of airport runway plates in a book called U.S. Terminal Procedures.
These charts are in a volume of books put out by the U.S. Department of Transportation
and the FAA. I'd recommend at least picking up a book for your area or any areas
that you wish to fly. These books are relatively inexpensive, usually costing about
$5.
The next supply you should pick up is a sectional chart. These are maps also put
out by the USDOT and FAA with airports, navigation aid, obstructions and other things
useful for flying. Again, I recommend picking up a map for your area or where ever
you plan to fly. These cost usually around $7 each.
The last item is a plotter. This device will help measure and plot your courses when
using sectional charts. Any ruler can pretty much do the same thing, but this can
make things a little easier to calculate courses. These usually run from $5 to $10.
I personally like the plotters that rotate.
All these and other supplies can be found in any aviation store. Usually aviation
stores can be found near airports. For a directory of FAA authorized agents, visit
the NOAA Web site.
There is also a an online store that sells these and other supplies at pilotportal.com.
They seem to have good prices and offer free standard shipping on all maps and charts.
For these
supplies, go into the Charts section, then look through Approach Plates - Bound
and VFR Sectional Charts.
For the upcoming tutorials I'll be using Detroit Metro and Lansing Capital Airports
as examples. If you want to fly along with your own charts, feel free to pick up
the Michigan Terminal Procedures book and Detroit Sectional Chart.
Map Keys
To help prepare for the next tutorial, there are
a few things I want to point out on the charts. For basic navigation, there are three
things you need to know. The first is how to locate/identify airports, second, where
navigation  stations are located and third
is to understand radial degrees. This is pretty basic stuff and if you've used a
flight sim before, you probably at least have an idea what these things are.
All navigation in flying uses radial degrees. A radial is a circle, with 360 degrees
spaced out around the circle. These degrees represent compass directions and relationships
to other objects. For example, north is 0/360 degrees, east is 90, south is 180 and
west is 270 and everything between.
Navigation aids are basically beacon radio stations. When you fly, you rarely can
make radio contact with your destination airport. Navigation aids help you move between
waypoints and also align yourself to approach airports. Some aids carry voice communication,
while others just transmit signals. Using the degrees, you can set courses from navigation
stations to move on to your next course.
There are many types of navigation equipment such as VOR, VORTAC, and VOR-DME stations.
I'm not going to get into the differences, but for our purposes they're beacons that
function to point us in the right direction.
As an example of how to use navigation aids you might use one to set a course to
a near by airport. Lets say a VORTAC station is located 100 nm west of an airport
you wish to go to. You can fly to that VORTAC station, and then set a heading to
90 degrees, sending you east to the airport. [Navigating with nav stations will be
covered in part three of this tutorial.]
Airports are where you obviously land and take off. Landing at airports can be tricky.
I used to have to fly right up to airport and do some radical maneuvers to get aligned
on a runway. In part two of our tutorial, I'll cover
how to use ILS and make a perfect landing at any airport on any runway on your first
try.
Besides landing and tacking off, most airports also act as navigation aids. Airport
beacons can guide your plane to runways or around to other airports or navigation
stations. Building on the last example, lets say there is an airport you wish to
reach, but you're not too sure where to go. The airport is 50 nm northeast of the
airport in the pervious example. To get there you would first travel to the original
VORTAC station, then head 90 east for 100 nm to the first airport, then change heading
to 70 degrees for 50 nm to the final airport. Sort of like connecting the dots.
Homework
Now that you're on your way to becoming a virtual pilot, your task until the next
article is to pick up some maps and charts. If you haven't already done so, picking
up a copy of either Fly! 2K or X-Plane might be a good idea too.
Brush up on your landing skills, because next time we'll be using the instrument
landing system to put our plane on the ground.
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